Erica Borggren, director of Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, stopped at Western Illinois University Thursday afternoon to give a keynote presentation for Women's History Month. She spoke on "Changing Roles of Women in the Military and Issues Facing Female Service Members and Veterans."

Before her speech, Borggren answered questions for members of the local media. Questions included below are those from both the McDonough County Voice and Tri-States Public Radio.

For the first time, females are allowed on the front lines, is that correct?

What happened in January was a directive from the Department of Defense and is actually the continuation of really a gradual evolution of women serving more and more in combat roles and really, in the last decade, proving their medal in combat roles. It was a recognition of that reality, really.

How will that change the military?

Ninety-three percent of military career fields were already open to women as it was. What the directive does is say to the rest of those 7 percent, which are what you think of when you see the media reports on the military, the patrolling, the infratrymen … you'll notice the use of that term, those have been typically been closed off to women. And the directive said by 2016, except by exception, all of these career fields will be open. And so it will be a process from here forward on the services side. I think it will require some significant culture change inside the military world. But it is again the continuation of a process that has been happening. And so it's certainly not impossible, and really pretty momentous for a lot of women in terms how 'How do you think of yourself at least peripherally as a woman in uniform?' In the same way that little girls can now dream of being presidents of the United States, you could in theory dream as a woman in uniform of being the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, which before would never have happened.

You said it's more of a recognition of a role women have already filled, so I'm guessing you've had women veterans of these recent conflicts who have seen combat and been injured in combat. Have you had maybe an increase since these conflicts of women taking advantage of post-combat services, that sort of thing?

Unfortunately, two separate questions. There is an increase in women who need the services as a result of their participation in the kinds of conflicts that we've seen. We've lost more than a 100 women veterans in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. And several from here in Illinois as well. A lot of women come back with the same kinds of post-traumatic stress as their male counterparts do, and so certainly the need has grown as the women's veteran population has grown. One of the big troubles with the women veteran community though is historically very difficult to get out of the woodwork and to have them self-identify as and own their experience in uniform. Coming forward to actually access those resources is a different question.

In sort of going along maybe with the hesitancy, I know a lot of people have been reporting on the epidemic of sexual assaults in the military. Are there any specific efforts that the Illinois Veterans Association, or department, has done to address maybe the needs of women who have been victimized like this?

They're really very shocking statistics in terms of how many women in uniform have suffered some kind of military sexual trauma (MST). The military will give an acronym to everything. One in five women who use the VA screen positive for MST, and that's just the women who are willing to use the VA, so we think it's really probably a much larger number. I think there is increasing attention on that issue and certainly increasing attention in the capitol and inside the services in terms of how to prevent this. Here on the veterans side, in terms of assisting these women who have struggled with this, I think the attention is actually really helping. It's helping in terms of resource from the foundation and funding community for non-profits that do this kind of work, to be able to set forward and provide alternatives. At the same time the federal VA is doing a ton to try and reach out and change the culture to be more women-friendly and adjust these issues. Because of the constraints in the VA funding in general, not to do with sequestration, in the last several years they've changed eligibility so you have to have either service-connected disability or a low-income in order to quality for VA healthcare. The VA has specifically waived both of those requirements for women who even say the words "military sexual trauma." You don't have to prove that you have some kind of service-connected disability. If you say "this is what happened," they will care for you regardless of your income limit. And so there is a focus on increasing resources.

What issues facing women are you most concerned about?

It's very difficult to separate issues in the veteran community. There very interrelated, so you hear about the unemployment problem with veterans, you hear about post-traumatic stress, you hear about homelessness and substance abuse, and really these are all interwoven inside one word in my mind: 'Transition.' And some veterans transition easily and well, including women veterans, and really with no issues. Others, Vietnam veterans, are still transitioning decades later, and so it's hard to say there's one particular issue. There are, I think though, three complicating factors that kind of layer on top of these traditional transition difficulties. One is the military sexual trauma that we've already discussed. That leads to post-traumatic stress just like combat does, so that's a real issue among women veterans. Another factor is the self-identification problem that women don't think of themselves as veterans or don't access the resources to the same extent, and so it's harder to catch them earlier in the downward spiral. And the last is the childcare issue, actually. Women veterans tend to more often be in a primary caregiver status and that will prevent you from going to a job fair, from making your VA appointment, you name it, and so that I think is a problem we've had the most difficulty putting resources toward. How do you create childcare at all these veterans events? That's difficult problem.

Communities

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The McDonough County Voice ~ 26 W. Side Square, Macomb, IL 61455 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service